Hussey v. SHTA Staff Lora
- Laura Swain
- 1:23-cv-03565
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Hussey v. SHTA Staff Lora, Judge Swain ordered Hussey to update his fee-waiver application or pay, or face dismissal without prejudice.
The order directly affects Yessuh Suhyes Hussey, who must either submit an updated fee-waiver application or pay $402 within 30 days to avoid dismissal without prejudice.
What happened
Yessuh Suhyes Hussey v. SHTA Staff Lora concerns Hussey’s request to proceed without paying court fees upfront. Hussey filed the case without a lawyer and was detained when he filed it, but he was later released.
Because Hussey’s financial circumstances had changed, the court ordered him to submit an updated application to waive the fees or pay $402. The court explained that the installment-payment rules for incarcerated people no longer applied after his release.
Judge Swain ordered Hussey to comply within 30 days. If he did not submit the updated application, the court said the action would be dismissed without prejudice. The court also denied fee-waiver status for any appeal from this order.
The detailed version
- Hussey v. SHTA Staff Lora · No. 1:23-cv-03565
- Laura Swain
- Apr. 28, 2023
Background
Yessuh Suhyes Hussey brought this action without a lawyer and asked to proceed in forma pauperis, meaning without paying the filing fees in advance. When he filed the action in the Eastern District of New York, he was detained as a prisoner at the Anna M. Kross Center on Rikers Island. He was later released from custody.
Court’s reasoning
The court explained that the Prison Litigation Reform Act requires prisoners proceeding without prepaying fees to pay the filing fee in installments. But after a prisoner is released, there is no prison account from which to collect those installments. The court relied on Second Circuit precedent stating that, after release, the person must either pay the remaining fee in full or have the ability to pay evaluated under the rules applicable to non-prisoners.
Because Hussey’s existing application did not show his current financial circumstances, the court directed him to submit an amended application or pay the filing fees. The court stated that the required fees were $402: a $350 filing fee and a $52 administrative fee.
Order
The court directed Hussey to submit the attached amended fee-waiver application within 30 days or pay the $402 in fees. If the court grants the amended application, Hussey may proceed without prepaying the fees. If he fails to comply, the action will be dismissed without prejudice, meaning the dismissal does not itself bar refiling. The court also certified that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith and denied fee-waiver status for purposes of an appeal. Judge Laura Taylor Swain signed the order.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.